I'm no surgeon, but your question about how long to take off climbing is a good one for the physician who did your operation. I doubt your minimally invasive surgery will set you back long enough for you to forget the beta to your project. Good luck on sending your problem!

shouldn't have much long term effects. lap appy does not cut many abdominal muscles. Basic outline is prep, cut skin, seperate muscle fibers with trochars, remove appendix, sew up. You should feel much better in a couple of days than you did before they took it out. Good luck to recovery, but don't worry about climbing, the muscles will feel better pretty soon.

Had an appendectomy at the end of February 2010... non laproscopic but a small incision. Went skiing in Tuckermans 17 days later. Give yourself 2 weeks and if it doesn't hurt start some V0's... if all goes well you should be able to send that sucker in a month.

Tom: Lucky for me I store my Chi along with my extra bile in my gallbladder, so as long as they let me keep that I should be golden.

Rob: The gas pockets are totally the worst part of it for me too.

Goran: I was already at fighting weight (6'2, 170#), not sure I can afford to lose much more.

Everyone else: Thanks for sharing your experiences and for the well wishes. My surgeon said I should be able to start riding my bike again in about 2 weeks, but that he thinks it would be longer before I can start climbing. He didn't really seem to have a good sense of the kinds of demands climbing puts on the body, though, and I think he was mostly guessing which is why I asked here. I figure I can start toproping as soon as I start biking again, and maybe wait another week or 2 before I start bouldering and leading again. I'll report back later with my own experience.

Then I just blew a golden opportunity! I should have asked if there were any other accessory organs (read: dead weight) they could have taken out while they were in there (not the gallbladder though, that's where my Chi lives).